I would have no problems with pre-orders if they were like an iPhone preorder, as in a release date is posted, so there is a real deadline. That system I am ok with, what I am not ok with is using pre-orders as a vehicle for R&D. I think that future bitcoin miners should demand ownership in the company in return for the risk. This might allow for the miners to have voting rights to have some say in how the company manages the investments made to them and would allow an incompetent CEO to be replaced. Hopefully bitshares will solve that more easily, we shall see...

Either way no original asic company can say that the average customer made more money than just holding bitcoins or buying bitcoins on first day of orders. It's bad press for BTC when orders don't come for months and it makes it look scammy/ponzi/in need of regulation, which hurts the community as a whole.